He said that since we have the New Testament and Jesus there is no need to bother reading the Old Testament. Since it was a conversation I was overhearing and not one I was a part of, I held my tongue. But everything inside of me wanted to march over there and let the man know that the Old Testament is still relevant, beautiful, and foundational.
The Old Testament is not just a prologue to the life of Jesus. The Bible is a collection of writings about God and how he interacts with His people. We are searching for specific ways the passage changes, impacts, or answers a question in our life. We must always start our study of Scripture looking for what the passage reveals about the character and purposes of God.
He is a God who protects and provides, who initiates and rescues — He is a pursuing God, going hard after those He loves.
This is easy to lose sight of as we read through the books of the law. In Leviticus, for example, it is easy to get confused or sidetracked by a list of weird rules that no longer apply to us. However, the more we learn how to read Scripture with a heart seeking to know God better, the more we will discover that the law as a call to holiness.
They show how He loves with reckless abandon and reveal the great lengths He will go to see His people living in relationship with Him. Our understanding of salvation and all that it entails is entirely dependent on those kinds of concepts and vocabulary that show up in the Old Testament. They do not necessarily even have any understanding of those concepts to begin with.
The gospel does not make sense without meaning to those words. When we look at the New Testament, we can see how the authors always understand the work of Christ through the concepts, words, and ideas that are there in the Old Testament.
Those are Old Testament ideas. There was a basis for them in Israel Scriptures that they are then understanding in light of what Christ did. You do not get salvation if you do not get the Old Testament. Fourth, studying the Old Testament is necessary for analyzing the writings of the Apostles. The Apostles, who wrote the New Testament, used the information, evidence, and even language formulas from the Old Testament.
For instance, Philip the Deacon uses the information from Isaiah to explain the prophecy of the arrival of Jesus. Fifth, reading the Old Testament makes the New Testament more clear and comprehensible for us. Not only does it give the understanding of the references to certain facts, universal principles, the task of Jesus, and the reasoning of Apostles, but it also allows a modern believer to grasp the overall sense of the New Testament.
The similarities between the two Testaments helps us to understand the religious laws better. The differences between the Testaments makes us appreciate the New Testament more since it lets us see that people were given a means to save their souls after the arrival of Jesus Pratte par.
Nowadays, a lot of believers consider reading the Old Testament unnecessary. Such an approach is entirely wrong.
Studying the Old Testament benefits a modern believer, giving them a material for a comprehensive analysis of the information presented in the New Testament. As such then you can say that both the Old and New Testaments are about Jesus - the Old Testament points to Jesus, and the New Testament describes his life, death and resurection, and reflects on the impact this has in the world.
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not then smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law 1st 5 books of the Bible until everything is accomplished. In short we would not understand Jesus as well as we do without the Old Testament.
As we read and reread the Old Testament, what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf will become clearer and clearer still. Home Does God Make Sense?
0コメント